The invention relates to a storage cupboard, in particular for hospital requirements (medicaments, consumable materials such as dressings, etc.), with perforated rails mounted to the two side walls, said perforated rails having a row of holes for snap-on and separable fastening of telescopic rails for extractable drawers.
Various systems are known for subdividing the space inside storage cupboards. For the storage and provision of items required in hospitals, a distinction is made between medicaments, on the one hand, and other consumable materials, on the other, whereby the latter particularly include dressings, swabs, cleaning materials etc. For safety reasons, medicaments are supplied in sealed containers and unpacked into stationary drawers in the storage cupboard, whereby said drawers may be extracted by means of telescopic rails. In the case of other, consumable materials, in contrast, the procedure is that containers with drawerxe2x80x94like guide elements on their side, which can be pushed into corresponding guide rails in the storage cupboard, are taken for refilling from the storage cupboard to the central supply depot of the hospital, where they are refilled, then brought back to the storage cupboard and pushed into the respective lateral guide rails of the cupboard.
In the prior art, these lateral guide rails are part of support walls that are fastened by screws on the inside of the side walls, as are the perforated rails for the telescope mounts for stationary drawers. The subdivision of the interior space of such storage cupboards is therefore confined to stationary drawers, on the one hand, and removeable containers, on the other. In practice, however, changes occur in the proportionate amount of storage space required for each of the two storage systems, for example because the relevant hospital ward is assigned to a different department (surgery instead of inner medicine, etc.).
The object of the present invention is to provide a flexible storage cupboard system in which the subdivision of the cupboard interior for the two types of storage can be modified without substantial effort.
In order to achieve this purpose, the invention proceeds from a solvable arrangement of (horizontal) telescopic drawer rails, such as that described at the outset and known from DE 88 02 388 U1 and 94 01 876 U1, for example, which rails are mounted on {vertically disposed} perforated rails. The invention is characterized by support walls that have guides on the front side for insertable containers, and snap-in toes on the rear side for clipping onto the perforated rails (now freed of telescopic rails). According to the invention, therefore, all side walls have perforated rails on the inside and are fitted according to requirements, either with telescopic rails for drawers or support walls for removeable containers, whereby the former are snapped into the perforated rails in the known manner, and the latter are clipped onto the same perforated rails in a novel way. By combining the attachment of support walls with perforated rails for the telescopic rails, not only do said perforated rails acquire a second use and the desired flexibility is achieved, but a crucially different type of fastening design is provided than that known of an extendable box from DE 92 15 904 U1.
The holes in the perforated rails and the snap-in toes of the support walls are preferably of generally quadratic shape. When fitted with telescopic rails, this permits same to be clipped on by means of punched out portions bent at a right angle that have linear attachment surfaces for engaging with the holes in the perforated rails.
The snap-in toes are comprised advantageously of recesses in the support wall, which is formed of a plastic plate. Thus, they can be easily manufactured when drawing or pressing the support wall support wall to mold the container guides. A particularly firm connection between the support wall and the perforated rails results is obtained when, in a development of the invention, the snap-in toes are of such conical shape that there is tight frictional engagement with the inside edges of the holes in the perforated rails when the support wall is placed onto the perforated rails.